The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an open XML-based standard for technical documentation, which is managed by the Organisation for Advancing Structured Information Standards (OASIS). The DITA standard is designed specifically to improve the efficiency of technical documentation teams by enabling single-sourcing and content component re-use. For background information on the DITA standard visit the web site of the OASIS DITA Technical Committee.

Single-sourcing and content component re-use

Whatever the size and scope of the technical documentation products you need to provide for your customers or staff, it is likely that some elements need to appear in more than one publication. By thinking of your user documentation not as a series of separate books but instead as a collection of discrete topics that can be assembled into publications as needed. The same topic may appear in several publications, but only needs to be written once. Any changes to the topic are reflected automatically in all the publications it appears in. Major organisations report considerable cost savings through this kind of content re-use, and these savings are multiplied further where there is a need for content to be translated into other languages. Using the DITA standard is a way of implementing a content re-use startegy in your organisation.

DITA Exchange

Dannywell Ltd. is the UK Authorised Reseller for DITA Exchange, a complete end to end, single source publishing and content collaboration platform for small, medium and large companies and organizations. It is based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and the DITA open standard. DITA Exchange is developed by Content Technologies ApS of Denmark.

Read the Microsoft Partner Case Study on DITA Exchange and Content Technologies.

DITA Exchange is browser-based, so no client installation is needed. With DITA Exchange, technical writers and subject-matter experts can write DITA topics and compose and publish DITA maps without needing specialist XML or DITA training. DITA Exchange enables you to:

• Start writing DITA topics right away, without specialist DITA or XML training
• Compose DITA topics into publications, reusing content components
• Automatically publish, update or deliver your publications according to corporate standards

More information

Please send an email to DITA Exchange enquiries if you’d like to find out how DITA Exchange can help you, or download the DITA Exchange Fact Sheet (PDF file).